Secure element authentication

ABSTRACT

Secure element authentication techniques are described. In implementations, a confirmation is received that an identity of a user has been physically verified using one or more physical documents. One or more credentials that are usable to authenticate the user are caused to be stored in a secure element of a mobile communication device of the user, the secure element implemented using tamper-resistant hardware.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/959,715, filed Dec. 3, 2010, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

Mobile communication devices such as wireless phones have become acommon part in the everyday life of a wide variety of users.Consequently, the mobile communication device may serve as a primarypoint of contact for a variety of business and personal uses. Forexample, a business user may utilize the mobile communication device toreceive email, a casual user may send text messages to friends, eitherone of the users may share pictures, and so on.

However, traditional techniques that were employed to securely storedata on the mobile communication device as well as to communicate datato the mobile communication device could result in the data being “inthe clear.” Even if but for a brief moment in time, malicious partiesmay take advantage of this vulnerability to steal sensitive data. Thismay even result in the ability by the malicious party to access otherinformation on the mobile communication device itself. Consequently,functionality of the mobile communication device may be limited frommeeting its true potential due to the ability to compromise data on themobile communication device.

SUMMARY

Secure element authentication techniques are described. Inimplementations, a confirmation is received that an identity of a userhas been physically verified using one or more physical documents. Oneor more credentials that are usable to authenticate the user are causedto be stored in a secure element of a mobile communication device of theuser, the secure element implemented using tamper-resistant hardware.

In one or more implementations, a challenge is received at a mobilecommunication device to authenticate an identity of a user of the mobilecommunication device. The challenge is processed by a secure element ofthe mobile communication device using one or more credentials, thechallenge being processed without exposing the one or more credentialsoutside of hardware that implements the secure element. An answer to thechallenge is exposed by the secure element.

In one or more implementations, a mobile communication device comprisesa secure element implemented in tamper-resistant hardware that isconfigured to decrypt credentials using a private key included in thesecure element and store the credentials once decrypted in the secureelement, the credentials configured to authenticate a user of the mobilecommunication device for access to a resource.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different instances in thedescription and the figures may indicate similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation of a mobilecommunication device in accordance with one or more embodiments ofdevices, features, and systems for mobile communications.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which a public key is located to communicate with amobile communication device.

FIG. 3 is a chart depicting a procedure in an example implementation inwhich a technique to communicate data securely to a mobile communicationdevice is shown

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which a technique to receive and process data receivedby a mobile communication device from a provisioning service is shown.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which example operation of a secure element of FIG. 1is shown.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which credentials are stored in a secure elementresponsive to a confirmation that an identity of a user has beenverified using physical documents.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which credentials are provisioned on a mobilecommunication device that are usable to authenticate a user's identity.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which a secure element of a mobile communicationdevice is configured to answer a challenge that is usable toauthenticate an identity of a user.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which an answer to a challenge processed by a secureelement of a mobile communication device is used as part of a multi-tierremote authentication technique.

FIG. 10 illustrates various components of an example device that can beimplemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device toimplement embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobilecommunications.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

Mobile communication devices (e.g., wireless phones) are configured toprovide a wide variety of functionality. However, data may becompromised on the mobile communication devices using traditionaltechniques. Therefore, the mobile communication device may not realizeits true potential.

Secure element authentication techniques are described through use of avariety of different examples. In implementations, a secure element maybe employed to authenticate an identity of a user. For example, thesecure element may be implemented using tamper-resistant hardware, suchas an integrated circuit secured to a printed circuit board that is toresistant snooping and removal from the board. The secure element may beconfigured to maintain credentials that are usable to authenticate anidentity of a user. The credentials may be utilized in a variety ofdifferent ways to authenticate the user, such as communicated via asecure communication channel, usable to answer a challenge withoutexposing the credentials themselves, and so on. Further, authenticationmay be utilized for a variety of purposes, such as to access resourcesincluding an online account, serve as a signature to sign a document,and so on, further discussion of which may be found in relation to thefollowing sections.

In the following discussion, a variety of example implementations of amobile communication device (e.g., a wireless phone) are described.Additionally, a variety of different functionality that may be employedby the mobile communication device is described for each example, whichmay be implemented in that example as well as in other describedexamples. Accordingly, example implementations are illustrated of a fewof a variety of contemplated implementations. Further, although a mobilecommunication device having one or more modules that are configured toprovide telephonic functionality are described, a variety of othermobile devices are also contemplated, such as personal digitalassistants, mobile music players, dedicated messaging devices, portablegame devices, netbooks, and so on.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation of an environment100 that is operable to employ the techniques described herein. Theenvironment includes a service provider 102, a mobile communicationdevice 104, and a provisioning service 106 that are illustrated ascommunicatively coupled, one to another, via a network 108. Although thenetwork 108 is illustrated as the Internet, the network may assume awide variety of configurations. For example, the network 108 may includea wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a wirelessnetwork, a public telephone network, an intranet, and so on. Further,although a single network 108 is shown, the network 108 may berepresentative of multiple networks.

The mobile communication device 104 is further illustrated as includinga communication module 110. The communication module 110 isrepresentative of functionality of the mobile communication device 102to communicate via the network 108. For example, the communicationmodule 110 may include telephone functionality to make and receivetelephone calls, such as by employing a telephone module to communicatevia a plain old telephone service (POTS), wireless network (e.g.,cellular and/or Wi-Fi), and so on.

The communication module 110 may also include a variety of otherfunctionality, such as to capture content, form short message service(SMS) text messages, multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages,emails, status updates to be communicated via a social network serviceor micro-blog, and so on. For instance, the communication module 110 mayalso support browser functionality to browse the network 108.

The mobile communication device 104 is further illustrated as includinga secure element 112. In one or more implementations, the secure element112 is representative of functionality to support secure communicationswith the mobile communication device 104. For example, the secureelement 112 may be implemented using hardware and configured duringmanufacture to include a private key 114, securely provision later, andso on. For instance, the secure element 112 may be implemented using atamper-resistant integrated circuit that is resistant to “snooping” aswell as physical removal from the mobile communication device 104 by amanufacturer of the device. For example, the manufacturer may cover asurface-mounted integrated circuit with an epoxy that helps to preventsnooping of the circuit as well as causing the circuit to break ifremoval is attempted from a circuit board. Further, this manufacturingprocess may be auditable to ensure that the private key 114 is keptsecret.

In implementations, the secure element 112 includes functionality toperform a variety of different options, such as encryption and/ordecryption operations, store credentials, and so on. For example, thesecure element 112 may use the private key 114 to perform a decryptionoperation and expose a result of the operation to other functionality ofthe mobile communication device 104, such as to one or more applications116 that are executable by the mobile communication device 104.

In this example, the secure element 112 may receive data to be decryptedfrom the application 116, decrypt the data using the private key 114,and then expose a result of the decryption operation (i.e., thedecrypted data) to the application 116. Therefore, inclusion of theprivate key 114 in the secure element 112 may help to protect theprivate key 114 from discovery “outside” the secure element 112 bykeeping the private key 114 from being exposed in the clear during thedecryption operation.

A variety of other functionality may also be supported through use ofthe secure element 112. For example, the secure element 112 may supporta protected communication channel through the provisioning service 106.The provisioning service 106, for instance, may include a provisioningmodule 118 and storage 120. The storage 120 may be used to maintain aserial number 122 assigned to an integrated circuit that includes thesecure element 112 and a corresponding public key 124 that forms anasymmetric public/private key pair with the private key 114 of themobile communication device 104. The provisioning module 118 may thusprovide the public key 124 to third-party services such thatcommunication between the third-party service and the mobilecommunication device 104 is protected, even if that communication occursusing the provisioning service 106 or other service as an intermediary.

For example, a user of the mobile communication device 104 may interactwith the communication module 110 or other functionality (e.g., anapplication 116) to navigate to a service provider 102 over the network108. The service provider 102 as illustrated includes a service module126 that is representative of functionality to provide one or moreservices for access via the network 108.

An example of one of these services is illustrated as implemented by anapplication service module 128. The application service module 128 isrepresentative of functionality to manage dissemination of one or moreapplications 130 via the network 108. Although the applications 130 areillustrated as stored in storage 132 local to the service provider 102(e.g., as part of a server farm that implements the service provider102), the storage 132 may be representative of a wide variety ofdifferent types of storage, e.g., third party storage.

In an example, the application service module 138 manages a marketplaceconfigured to provide applications 130 for purchase via the network 108.Therefore, a user of the mobile communication device 104 may access themarketplace to purchase one or more of the applications 130 for downloadto local storage, which is illustrated as application 116 in thisexample. To purchase and/or transport the application 130, the mobilecommunication device 104 and the service provider 102 may utilize securecommunications implemented at least in part through use of the secureelement 112. The secure communications may be implemented in a varietyof ways.

In one instance, the public key 124 is provided to secure communicationsbetween the service provider 102 and the mobile communication device 104directly. For example, the public key 124 may be located by theprovisioning module 118 of the provisioning service 106 by obtaining aserial number 122 for the integrated circuit that implements the secureelement 112, e.g., from the mobile communication device 104. Theprovisioning module 118 may then use the serial number 122 to locate thepublic key 124 and provide the public key 124 to the service provider102. The public key 124 may then be used to encrypt data to becommunicated to the mobile communication device 104, such as theapplication 130, billing information and other credentials, and so on.

In another instance, the provisioning service 106 provides the publickey 124 to the service provider 102 as a basis to support indirectcommunications, such as to securely transport credentials and other data(e.g., cryptographic keys) that are to be used as a basis to form acommunication channel. For example, the service provider 102 may providecredentials (e.g., other cryptographic keys) that are to be used tosecure communications between the service provider 102 and the mobilecommunication device 104. To protect these credentials from compromiseby malicious parties, the credentials may be encoded using this publickey 124. In other words, the other cryptographic keys may be encryptedusing the public key 124 for communication to the mobile communicationdevice 104 to protect the other cryptographic keys from discovery bymalicious parties.

In this way, regardless of whether the communication is communicatedindirectly via the provisioning service 106 or directly via the network108, the credentials (e.g., the other cryptographic keys) are protectedfrom discovery through encryption using the public key 124. Therefore,even the provisioning service 106 itself is not able to determine “what”is being communicated between the service provider 102 and the mobilecommunication device 104.

The mobile communication device 104 may then decrypt the communicationusing the secure element 112, and more particularly the private key 114,to obtain the other cryptographic keys. A variety of differenttechniques may then be employed to utilize the other cryptographic keysonce decrypted.

In one technique, the other cryptographic keys are exposed for useoutside the secure element 112, such as by an application 116 or otherfunctionality of the mobile communication device 104. Thus, in thistechniques the secure element 112 is leveraged to provide thecredentials that are used to serve as a basis to secure communicationsbut is not used to secure the communications itself, i.e., to providethe actual encryption/decryption.

In another technique, the other cryptographic keys may be kept frombeing exposed outside the secure element 112 through storage within thesecure element 112. The secure element 112 may then use thecryptographic keys as previously described to decrypt and/or encryptdata received by the secure element 112 without exposing thecryptographic keys “outside” the secure element 112. The secure element112 may thus employ a variety of different techniques to securecommunications with the mobile communication device 104, the example ofthe service provider 102 above being but one of many such examples.

Additionally, the secure element 112 may be used to obtain a variety ofother credentials that may be used to provide a wide variety offunctionality. For example, the secure element 112 may maintainfunctionality to act as part of a multi-tiered authentication system.For instance, the secure element 112 may be configured to answer achallenge. This answer may then be provided as part of an authenticationprocess with a user name and password, a personal identification number(PIN), and so on such that the user may be authenticated with increasedtrustworthiness. Further discussion of the leveraging of techniques toanswer a challenge by the secure element 112 may be found in relation toFIGS. 8 and 9.

In another example, the secure element 112 may be leveraged for remoteidentification. The mobile communication device 104, for instance, maybe used to store an “identity” of a user of the device. This identitymay then be provided to other parties to verify that the user “is whothey say they are.” In one such implementation, the mobile communicationdevice 104 may be “tapped” against a reader at a physical location of anentity that desires to verify the identity of a user of the mobilecommunication device 104. Additionally, this identity may be used tosign documents using the mobile communication device 104. Further, themobile communication device 104 may be configured to maintain aplurality of such identities for verification by a plurality ofdifferent entities, further discussion of which may be found in relationto FIGS. 6 and 7.

Generally, any of the functions described herein can be implementedusing software, firmware, hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manualprocessing, or a combination of these implementations. The terms“module,” “functionality,” and “logic” as used herein generallyrepresent software, firmware, hardware, or a combination thereof. In thecase of a software implementation, the module, functionality, or logicrepresents program code that performs specified tasks when executed on aprocessor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). The program code can be stored in one ormore computer readable memory devices, further description of which maybe found in relation to FIG. 2. The features of the provisioningtechniques described below are platform-independent, meaning that thetechniques may be implemented on a variety of commercial computingplatforms having a variety of processors.

Example Procedures

The following discussion describes techniques that may be implementedutilizing the previously described systems and devices. Aspects of eachof the procedures may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, ora combination thereof. The procedures are shown as a set of blocksand/or arrows that specify operations performed by one or more devicesand/or data communicated between the devices and are not necessarilylimited to the orders shown for performing the operations by therespective blocks or arrows. In portions of the following discussion,reference will be made to the environment 100 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 depicts a procedure 200 in an example implementation in which apublic key is located to communicate with a mobile communication device.A request is transmitted that includes an identifier of a secure elementimplemented in hardware of a mobile communication device (block 202).For example, the identifier may describe a serial number of anintegrated circuit that implements the secure element 112 of the mobilecommunication device 104. The serial number 122, for instance, may bestored during manufacture of the mobile communication device 104 with acorresponding public key 124. As previously noted, the public key 124may be part of a public/private key pair 124, 114 that uses asymmetricencryption.

The request may be transmitted by a variety of different entities, suchas by a service provider 102 in order to communicate with the mobilecommunication device 104, by the mobile communication device 104,itself, to provision functionality, and other entities. For example, theservice provider 102 may obtain the serial number 112 from the mobilecommunication device 104 and communicate it to the provisioning service106 to secure communications between the service provider 102 and themobile communication device 104. In another example, the mobilecommunication device 104 may receive a request from a user of the deviceto provision functionality of the mobile communication device 104, suchas to enable execution of an application 116 by the device, provide asecure communication channel with another device (e.g., the serviceprovider), and so on. A variety of other examples are also contemplated.

A particular one of a plurality of public keys is located using anidentifier included in a request received via a network (block 204).Continuing with the previous example, the identifier (e.g., a serialnumber or other identifier) may be used by the provisioning service 106to locate the public key 124. In this way, the provisioning service 106may locate the public key 124 without engaging in an encryption ordecryption operation itself. Further, the provisioning service 106 maybe configured to be auditable by other entities to verify that theprovisioning service 106 is not able to decrypt data to be sent to themobile communication device 104 that is encrypted using the public key124. And thus, the provisioning service 106 may be “trusted” by serviceprovider 102, the mobile communication device 104, and other entitiesthat are to communicate via the service.

The located public key is communicated via the network, the public keyconfigured to encrypt data that is to be decrypted by a secure elementof a mobile communication device, the secure element implemented usinghardware and including a private key that is configured to decrypt thedata that was encrypted using the public key (block 206). The secureelement 112, for instance, may receive data encrypted by the public key124 and decrypt the data using hardware functionality of the secureelement 112 itself. In this way, the private key 114 as well as the dataare protected from malicious parties. The secure element 112 may thenexpose the data or keep the data internal, further discussion of whichmay be found in relation to FIGS. 4 and 5.

FIG. 3 depicts a procedure 300 in an example implementation in which atechnique to communicate data securely to a mobile communication deviceis shown. The procedure 300 is illustrated as including a credit service302, an issuing entity 304, (e.g., a bank or other financialinstitution), an issuing service 306 (e.g., Gemalto), an auditablereference service 308, a provisioning service 310 (which may or may notcorrespond to the provisioning service 106 of FIG. 1), a mobile operator(e.g., an operator of a wireless network), and a mobile communicationdevice 314, which may or may not correspond to the mobile communicationdevice 104 of FIG. 1. In the following discussion, the arrows will beused in indicate an example flow of data. It should be readily apparenthowever, that the order and the data referenced therein describe one ofa variety of different implementations.

At arrow 316, data is communicated from the credit service 302 (e.g., acredit card service such as Visa) to an issuing entity 304, such as abank or other financial institution that issues credit cards. At arrow318, the issuing entity 304 communicates data to an issuing service 306to issue one or more credit cards, e.g., to permit use of the creditcards for online payments and so on.

At arrow 320, a mobile communication device 314 makes a request to aprovisioning service 310 to provision functionality of the mobilecommunication device 314. A wide variety of functionality may beprovisioned, such as to enable execution of an application by the mobilecommunication device 314, to obtain credentials to access a web service,and so on.

At arrow 322, the provisioning service 310 communicates with anauditable reference service 308 to locate a public key that isassociated with the mobile communication device 314. As stated inrelation to FIG. 2, for instance, the request may include an identifier(e.g., a serial number) that is usable to locate a public key of mobilecommunication device 314. Further, the auditable reference service 308may be configured to permit other entities to “check” the device toensure that communication performed through the device or other devicesare protected from discovery as previously described.

At arrow 324, the provisioning service 310 receives a response to therequest of arrow 322 that includes the public key that corresponds tothe mobile communication device 314. At arrow 326, the provisioningservice 310 then provides this public key to the issuing service 306along with a request for data (e.g., credentials) to be communicated tothe mobile communication device 314. At arrow 328, the provisioningservice 310 receives the data encrypted by the public key and at arrow330 communicates the data to the mobile communication device 314.

Thus, in this example the provisioning service 310 acts as anintermediary to manage provisioning of the mobile communication device.Further, the “trustworthiness” of this function may be verified byoutside entities through auditing of the auditable reference service308. In this way, even if the auditable reference service 308 iscompromised by a malicious party the integrity of data on the mobilecommunicates device 314 is maintained, further discussion of which maybe found in relation to the following figures.

FIG. 4 depicts a procedure 400 in an example implementation in which atechnique to receive and process data received by a mobile communicationdevice from a provisioning service is shown. A request is transmittedthat includes an identifier of a secure element implemented in hardwareof the mobile communication device (block 402). As before, the secureelement may be identified in a variety of ways, such as through a serialnumber of an integrated circuit that includes the secure element.

A response is received to the request that includes data that isencrypted using a public key that corresponds to a private key (block404). The response, for instance, may be obtained directly from aservice provider 102 and encrypted using the public key provided by theprovisioning service 106. In another instance, the response may bereceived indirectly via the provisioning service 310 as described inrelation to FIG. 3, and so on.

The data is decrypted by the secure element using the private key (block406). For example, the secure element 112 may be configured usinghardware as previously described and include functionality to decryptthe data using the private key 114 without communicating the key “off”an integrated circuit (e.g., computer chip) that implements the element.Functionality of the mobile communication device may then be provisionedusing the data (block 408). A variety of different functionality may beprovisioned, an example of which is discussed in relation to thefollowing figure.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which example operation of a secure element of FIG. 1is shown. Continuing from FIG. 3, the mobile communication device 314 isillustrated as including a client 502 and a secure element implementedusing a secure element external library 504 and a secure elementinternal library 506.

At arrow 508, the client 502 (e.g., an application) of the mobilecommunication device 314 is illustrated as receiving the encrypted data330, e.g., from the provisioning service 310 of FIG. 3. The client 502may then detect that the data is encrypted and accordingly utilize thesecure element to decrypt the data. For example, at arrow 510 the client502 may initiate the secure element (e.g., an integrated circuit onwhich the secure element is implemented), initiate an application atarrow 512, perform an authorization handshake at arrow 514, and pass theencrypted data 330 to the secure element external library 504 of thesecure element at arrow 516.

The secure element external library 504 may then pass the encrypted datato the secure element internal library 506 at arrow 518, which is thendecrypted by the secure element. A result of the decryption is thenprovided back from the secure element internal library 506 to the secureelement external library 504. As previously described, a variety ofdifferent examples are also contemplated, such as to keep the datainternal to the secure element for subsequent use (e.g., for decryptionand/or encryption operations to form a secure channel), expose the datafor use by the client 502 (e.g., as credentials for logon, to perform apurchase), and so on. Thus, a variety of different data may becommunicated securely to the mobile communication device, such as datato make a purchase using information relating to a credit card, providean identifier for use as a transit access card, provide an identifierassociated with a loyalty card, or provide credentials usable by themobile communication device to access a premises.

FIG. 6 depicts a procedure 600 in an example implementation in whichcredentials are stored in a secure element responsive to a confirmationthat an identity of a user has been verified using physical documents. Aconfirmation is received that an identity of a user has been physicallyverified using one or more physical documents (block 602). For example,a user may go to a physical location and show documents to a person thatmay be used to confirm the identity of the user, such as a driver'slicense, passport, social security card, birth certificate, marriagelicense, and so on. The person that examines these documents may theninteract with a computing device to confirm that the user “is who theysay they are” based on the physical documents, such as by interactingwith a user interface of the computing device.

One or more credentials that are usable to authenticate the user arecaused to be stored in a secure element of a mobile communication deviceof the user, the secure element implemented using tamper-resistanthardware (block 604). Continuing with the previous example, theconfirmation received by the computing device from the person may causethe computing device to initiate one or more techniques to provisioncredentials on the mobile communication device 102. For instance,techniques may be implemented that involve the provisioning service 106to communicate the credentials securely “over the cloud” from the searchprovider 102.

As previously described in relation to FIGS. 2-5, these techniques mayinclude communication of the public key 124 to a service provider 102which uses the key to encrypt credentials for communication over thenetwork 108 to the mobile communication device 104. The mobilecommunication device 104 may then provide the encrypted data to thesecure element 112, which may use the private key 114 to decrypt theencrypted data that includes the credentials.

The credentials may then be stored within the secure element 112 (e.g.,an integrated circuit that implements the secure element 112) withoutexposing the credentials. Additionally, the secure element 112 may beconfigured to be tamper resistant to reduce a likelihood of snoopingand/or physical removal of the element as previously mentioned inrelation to FIG. 1. In this way, the credentials may be stored securelywith a reduced likelihood of being compromised by malicious parties.Further, the credentials may be used for a variety of differentpurposes, one example of which may be found in relation to the followingfigure.

FIG. 7 depicts a procedure 700 in an example implementation in whichcredentials are provisioned on a mobile communication device that areusable to authenticate a user's identity. As before, physical documentsare examined at a physical location, the documents presented by a userto authenticate the user's identity (block 702). For example, a user maytake a mobile communication device to a passport office along withdocuments that are usable to authenticate the user's identity, such as adriver's license, social security card, and so on. An employee or otherperson at the passport office may then examine the documents toauthenticate that the user “is who they say they are.”

The employee may then initiate an operation to provision credentials ona secure element of the mobile communication device of the user at thephysical location (block 704). For example, a computing device at thepassport office may be used to securely provide credentials to themobile communication device 104 over a local connection between thecomputing device and the mobile communication device 104. For instance,the credentials may be communicated responsive to tapping the device onan NFC reader and read using near field technology.

The credentials may be generated locally by the computing device,obtained remotely over the network 108, and so on. Further, otherprovisioning techniques are also contemplated such as those previouslydescribed in relation to FIGS. 2-5. Thus, the credentials may besecurely maintained by a mobile communication device 104 of the user,which may support a variety of different functionality.

A user may encounter a situation that involves authentication of theuser's identity (block 706), such as travel to a foreign countryfollowing the previous passport example. Upon entering immigration, theforeign country may demand a passport.

In response, credentials from the secure element are communicatedsecurely to a requestor of the authentication (block 708). The user, forinstance, may “tap” the mobile communication device 102 against areader. Credentials from the secure element 112 may then be used toauthenticate the user, such as to obtain an electronic copy of theuser's passport from a service over the network 108. Further, the mobilecommunication device 104 may be used also to sign paperwork usingcredentials stored in the secure element, such as to sign a declarationform. Thus, the mobile communication device 104 may serve as a readysource to authenticate an identity of the user. Although these examplesdescribe communicating credentials that are stored in the secureelement, the credentials may also be used to answer challenges toauthenticate a user's identity, further discussion of which may be foundin relation to the following figure.

FIG. 8 depicts a procedure 800 in an example implementation in which asecure element of a mobile communication device is configured to answera challenge that is usable to authenticate an identity of a user. Achallenge is received at a mobile communication device to authenticatean identity of a user of the mobile communication device (block 802).The challenge, for instance, may be include a collection of letters thatare entered by a user of the mobile communication 104, received via anapplication that is executed on a processor of the mobile communicationdevice 104 that is separate from the secure element 112, and so on.

The challenge is processed by a secure element of the mobilecommunication device using one or more credentials, the challenge beingprocessed without exposing the one or more credentials outside ofhardware that implements the secure element (block 804). As discussed inrelation to FIG. 5, the mobile communication device may receive data andperform processing using the data without exposing intermediate resultsof the processing or data used to perform the processing (e.g., thecredentials) outside of the secure element 112. Therefore, the challengemay be processed using credentials that may be kept secret before,during, and after the processing, such as through use of cryptographictechniques and so on.

An answer to the challenge may then be exposed by the secure element(block 806). The answer may be output in a variety of ways. The answermay be for manual entry by a user into a user interface, may be outputto an application that is to use to answer as part of a login operation,and so on, further discussion of which may be found in relation to thefollowing figure.

FIG. 9 depicts a procedure 900 in an example implementation in which ananswer to a challenge processed by a secure element of a mobilecommunication device is used as part of a multi-tier remoteauthentication technique. An application is downloaded from anapplication marketplace to a mobile communication device (block 902).The mobile communication device 104, for instance, may navigate to aservice provider 102 over a network 108 to cause an application 130 tobe downloaded to the mobile communication device 104. In this example,the application is provided by a bank to perform online banking andother account management operations.

Credentials are provisioned onto a secure element of the mobilecommunication device (block 904). A variety of different techniques maybe used to provision the credentials. In one example, “in person”techniques are utilizes as previously described in which the userpresents physical documents at a physical location (e.g., a branch ofthe bank) to cause credentials to be stored in the secure element 112.In another example, the provisioning service 106 may be utilized tosecurely communicate the credentials between the bank and the mobilecommunication device 104, either directly or indirectly. A variety ofother examples are also contemplated.

A login to a website is initiated by entering a user name and password(block 906). The user, for example, may be prompted to enter thisinformation by the banking application. In response, a challenge may bereceived from the website (block 908), which may be configured as astring of characters, a question, and so on. The challenge is thencommunicated to the secure element 112, which processes the challengeusing the provisioned credentials (block 910). The secure element 112,for instance, may apply one or more cryptographic techniques to thestring of letters (e.g., process using a cryptographic key) to producean answer, find an answer to the quest using the credentials, and so on.

The answer to the challenge is then provided to the website (block 912)which may then be used to complete login to the website. Thus, amulti-tiered approach may be utilized to login to the website thatleverages the secure element. Although a website was described, avariety of different resources are contemplated, such as to access anATM, data storage, computing device, lock of a physical location, safe,opening a vehicle door, starting a vehicle, and so on. Thus, thecredentials stored in the secure element 112 may be used for a varietyof purposes, such as to authenticate the user to make a purchase usinginformation relating to a credit card, provide an identifier for use asa transit access card, provide an identifier associated with a loyaltycard, or provide credentials usable by the mobile communication deviceto access a premises.

Example Device

FIG. 10 illustrates various components of an example device 1000 thatcan be implemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile deviceto implement embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobilecommunications. For example, device 1000 can be implemented as any ofthe mobile communication devices 104 described with reference torespective FIG. 1. Device 1000 can also be implemented to access anetwork-based service, such as a social network service as previouslydescribed.

Device 1000 includes input 1002 that may include Internet Protocol (IP)inputs as well as other input devices. Device 1000 further includescommunication interface 1004 that can be implemented as any one or moreof a wireless interface, any type of network interface, and as any othertype of communication interface. A network interface provides aconnection between device 1000 and a communication network by whichother electronic and computing devices can communicate data with device1000. A wireless interface enables device 1000 to operate as a mobiledevice for wireless communications.

Device 1000 also includes one or more processors 1006 (e.g., any ofmicroprocessors, controllers, and the like) which process variouscomputer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 1000and to communicate with other electronic devices. Device 1000 can beimplemented with computer-readable media 1008, such as one or morememory components, examples of which include random access memory (RAM)and non-volatile memory (e.g., any one or more of a read-only memory(ROM), flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.).

Computer-readable media 1008 provides data storage to store content anddata 1010, as well as device applications and any other types ofinformation and/or data related to operational aspects of device 1000.For example, an operating system 1012 can be maintained as a computerapplication with the computer-readable media 1008 and executed onprocessor 1006. Device applications can also include a communicationmanager module 1014 (which may be used to provide telephonicfunctionality) and a media manager 1016.

Device 1000 also includes an audio and/or video output 1018 thatprovides audio and/or video data to an audio rendering and/or displaysystem 1020. The audio rendering and/or display system 1020 can beimplemented as integrated component(s) of the example device 1000, andcan include any components that process, display, and/or otherwiserender audio, video, and image data. Device 1000 can also be implementedto provide a user tactile feedback, such as vibrate and haptics.

Generally, the blocks may be representative of modules that areconfigured to provide represented functionality. Further, any of thefunctions described herein can be implemented using software, firmware(e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual processing, or a combination ofthese implementations. The terms “module,” “functionality,” and “logic”as used herein generally represent software, firmware, hardware or acombination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, themodule, functionality, or logic represents program code that performsspecified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). Theprogram code can be stored in one or more computer readable memorydevices. The features of the techniques described above areplatform-independent, meaning that the techniques may be implemented ona variety of commercial computing platforms having a variety ofprocessors.

CONCLUSION

Although the invention has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specificfeatures and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing theclaimed invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receive a confirmation thatan identity of a user has been physically verified using one or morephysical documents; and causing one or more credentials usable toauthenticate the user to be stored in a secure element of a mobilecommunication device of the user, the secure element implemented usingtamper-resistant hardware.
 2. A method as described in claim 1, whereinin the secure element includes a private key configured to decrypt datathat includes the one or more credentials that was encrypted using acorresponding public key, the secure element configured to perform thedecryption without exposing the private key and the one or morecredentials outside of the hardware of the secure element.
 3. A methodas described in claim 1, wherein credentials are encrypted using thepublic key by an entity that obtains the public key responsive toprovision of an identifier of a serial number of an integrated circuitthat forms the hardware secure element of the mobile communicationdevice.
 4. A method as described in claim 3, wherein the public key isone of a plurality of public keys are located on one or more devices ofa provisioning service that are auditable by an outside party todetermine that information stored by the one or more devices is notconfigured to decrypt data encrypted by one or more of the plurality ofpublic keys.
 5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the hardwareis tamper resistant such that the credentials, after storage, are notexposed outside of the secure element by the mobile communicationdevice.
 6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the hardware istamper resistant such that an integrated circuit that is used toimplement the secure element is resistant to removal from a circuitboard of the mobile communication device.
 7. A method as described inclaim 1, wherein the hardware is tamper resistant such that anintegrated circuit that is used to implement the secure element isresistant to snooping.
 8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein theone or more credentials are usable to authenticate the user withoutmanual entry of information by the user.
 9. A method as described inclaim 1, wherein the mobile communication device is configured toinclude telephone functionality.
 10. A method as described in claim 1,wherein the one or more credentials are configured for use by the mobilecommunication device to authenticate the user to make a purchase usinginformation relating to a credit card, provide an identifier for use asa transit access card, provide an identifier associated with a loyaltycard, or provide credentials usable by the mobile communication deviceto access a premises.
 11. A method comprising: receiving a challenge ata mobile communication device to authenticate an identity of a user ofthe mobile communication device; processing the challenge by a secureelement of the mobile communication device using one or morecredentials, the challenge being processed without exposing the one ormore credentials outside of hardware that implements the secure element;and exposing an answer to the challenge by the secure element.
 12. Amethod as described in claim 11, wherein the receiving is performed byan application that executes on a processor of the mobile communicationdevice that is not part of the secure element and the exposing of theanswer by the secure element exposes the answer to the application. 13.A method as described in claim 11, wherein in the secure elementincludes a private key configured to decrypt data that includes thechallenge that was encrypted using a corresponding public key, thesecure element configured to perform the decryption without exposing theprivate key outside of the secure element.
 14. A method as described inclaim 11, wherein the processing involves an encryption or decryptionoperation using one or more encryption keys stored in the secureelement.
 15. A method as described in claim 11, wherein the answer isconfigured to be provided along with a user name and password to gainaccess to a resource.
 16. A method as described in claim 11, wherein theanswer is configured to be provided along with personal identificationnumber (PIN) to gain access to a resource.
 17. A method as described inclaim 11, wherein successive said processing used to authenticate theuser involves different challenges, respectively.
 18. A mobilecommunication device comprising a secure element implemented intamper-resistant hardware that is configured to decrypt credentialsusing a private key included in the secure element and store thecredentials once decrypted in the secure element, the credentialsconfigured to authenticate a user of the mobile communication device foraccess to a resource.
 19. A mobile communication device as described inclaim 18, wherein the credentials are configured for use by the mobilecommunication device to make a purchase using information relating to acredit card, provide an identifier for use as a transit access card,provide an identifier associated with a loyalty card, providecredentials usable by the mobile communication device to access apremises, open a vehicle, or start a vehicle.
 20. A mobile communicationdevice as described in claim 18, wherein the credentials are usable bythe secure element to generate a signature to sign a document.